RADIOApril 16, 2025

New Evidence: Is ADHD a Scam to Feminize Our Boys?

Is ADHD a scam? As diagnosis levels (and Adderall sales) have skyrocketed, the New York Times recently reported that experts are now questioning whether they’ve been thinking about ADHD all wrong. Glenn and Stu debate whether the real cause of ADHD symptoms is not a chemical imbalance, but instead how we treat our boys. As pointed out in commentary from the Daily Wire, our education system has been feminized, our kids have been distracted by smart phones, and our doctors have pushed medication on them. Maybe the real solution is much simpler: let boys be boys!

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So even though Stu doesn't want you to hear this news.

STU: I don't.

GLENN: Doesn't want you to hear this news. Because he hates children.

STU: I do? I have two of them.

GLENN: Yeah. Well, Mengele liked them in pairs too. So...

STU: Wow. That went really dark, really fast.

GLENN: I do have --

STU: We're like ten seconds into the hour.

GLENN: I'm like launching nuclear weapons. Yeah. We should probably build up to that one.

Anyway, there's a new article out now that talks about ADHD. And it's come from the left.

And the experts. That they're now starting to say, I don't know.

Maybe -- maybe -- maybe not everything we thought was true, about ADHD. And I think this story was written by Matt Walsh, who was great.

Whoever wrote this for the daily wire was great.

More than 21 percent of 14-year-old boys in this country, now supposedly suffer from ADHD. The number goes up to 23 percent for 17-year-old boys. As a result, prescriptions for drugs like Ritalin and Adderall has skyrocketed. Just want you to know, that's speed.

From 2012 to 2022, the total number of prescriptions for stimulants, to treat ADHD increased dramatically by nearly 60 percent. From 2012, in a ten-year period, we've gone up with 60 percent prescription.

Between the ages of 10 to 14, the demographic saw the highest increase in these prescriptions. So he writes, and I think this is such a great observation. For decades, you have been instructed to believe that there's no significance to this correlation whatsoever. And here it is: As women increasingly enter the workforce and replace men in teaching jobs, we're not supposed to dray any conclusions about how the behavior of male children is now being addressed.

The truth is, we've been told, not that effeminized education system has increasingly punished normal male behavior it doesn't understand. It's not that schools have lost their capacity to educate male students, it's that -- it's not that smartphone use and electronics in general have become distractions. Teachers have been unable to control.

Instead, we're led to believe that boys have suddenly become afflicted with a severe psychological disorder.

Okay. I -- you know, this is the first time, I had ever heard this about, you know, how we effeminized things. And we have. We have diminished boys, but I grew up in a school. I don't think I had a male teacher until I was in high school. I had all-female teachers. There weren't a lot of nuns that were, oh, my gosh. I remember that really -- I remember that really male-like -- maybe she was a man, but identified as a nun.

I'm not sure.

STU: You, of course -- to put it gently, are not exactly a recent student -- you know.

GLENN: It's better than where I thought he was going, Sara. I thought he was going, you're not really a man.

STU: No. But you're right. There are --

GLENN: Right.

STU: There are surely more female teachers just because of the workforce changes. That was a pretty -- all my teachers that I could remember were female too.

GLENN: Right. One thing that has changed though, is we just dismiss boys entirely.

I mean, it's all focused on girls, right now. All of it. It's science. Everything is just push the girls. Push the girls.

You can be anything. Shut up, sit down. Have some Ritalin. To the boys.

And that's a problem. I have to tell you, as a parent, you probably have recognized this. Does Lisa understand your daughter better than you do, and I understand your son?

STU: I get the point you're going at. I don't necessarily that it -- some ways she understands my daughter. We talk about this often.

GLENN: Because I walk in. I am just clueless. I have no idea. I walk in as a dad, and I'm like, hey, put some pants on, will you? And my daughter is like (crying). And I'm like, what the hell did I just say?

And my wife just looks at me like, you don't say that to her. I'm like, okay. But she'll say that to my son, and my son doesn't go (crying).

STU: Right. They're different.

GLENN: I know. They are. They are.

And I can relate -- for instance, my wife she will say something. And I know how she means it. Because I'm an adult.

But I can hear what Rafe hears.

STU: Right. Yes.

GLENN: Because I heard it from my mom, and I realized, no, that's not what my mom meant.

But you hear, pick up your room! You're always a mess. You're always this. And that's not what she said, you know what I mean? It's true.

It's not --

STU: As they get sound bite teenage years, in particular. It's really difficult.

GLENN: That's what I mean. Is the teenage years.

I have no idea.

Like I had no idea how mean girls are. Oh, my gosh.

They are vicious. I would much rather be put into a room of rabid boys.

Than normal girls. They are dangerous!

STU: Guys can be jerks, but they are --

GLENN: They're stupid jerks.

STU: Yeah, it's just kind of nonsensical stuff.

Girls dig. They dig for the wounds.

Yeah.

GLENN: Oh, my gosh. They'll cut you open, and then they'll eat your heart while you're still watching.

I mean, it's horrible.

Anyway, so the article goes on to say, about how some of these -- some of these studies.

And they point one out.

The University of Central Florida conducted a grand experiment where they put a child in front of a computer. And it shows the video in this.

The research -- by the way, you can get this article at GlennBeck.com. You just sign up for my free email newsletter. Get all the stories we talk about every day.

Research shows the child two separate videos. One was a video about mathematics, and it involves a teacher talking about basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

The other video was the pod racing scene from Star Wars.

Now, you'll never guess what they discovered.

STU: Oh, what did they discover?

GLENN: They discovered that when the math lecture was going on, the kids started spinning in his chair. And he was fidgeting, and not paying attention. But when the child was watching the pod --

STU: Oh, my gosh. ADD.

GLENN: Yes. Something deeply psychologically wrong that kid, right?

STU: You're telling me, when they showed the one good scene from the first prequel, they were interested. Wow, it's shocking.

GLENN: The rest of the movie is like math.

STU: Yeah, give me the one that is the pod racing scene versus the trade dispute scene from the Star Wars. Why go to anything else? Just do the Star Wars scene.

GLENN: Right. It doesn't prove anything.

STU: It proves, that there wasn't a lot of good scenes in the first Star Wars.

GLENN: Wait a minute. I just did a study with my kids. They like sugary cereal over Bran Flakes.

STU: Oh, my gosh. They can't stand focused on the Bran Flakes.

GLENN: No, I have to get them on LSD or something.

STU: We are looking for these diagnoses. To diagnosis kids in this way, I think often. It doesn't mean that there aren't some that have these types of issues. You know, when you refer to that article. You said Matt Walsh wrote this?

GLENN: I don't know. It's from Daily Wire.

STU: Daily Wire is great. We love The Daily Wire guys. Obviously, the one I had read was some scientific -- I thought you were referring to a different story, where they didn't say it was a scam.

Obviously, it's an opinion to say it was a scam.

GLENN: No, yeah, it's a pretty strong opinion.

STU: It might be the right one. I don't know. But I was referring to a different article, which is why I was confused, as to the framing of it.

GLENN: Right. Right. Right.

STU: I think there are kids that are affected with -- real trouble in school. Focusing on things.

GLENN: Of course.

STU: That was maybe a little bit more than they could handle.

GLENN: But that's not a psychological disorder.

STU: Right.

GLENN: It's not.

All kids are wired differently. Boys and girls are wired differently in the first place.

That's one of the things that AI can produce. That will be good.

With you as a parent, overseeing it every step of the way.

Is it will -- it will adapt to the way you learn. Because everybody learns differently. You know. There are kids that just -- they're into math. And I don't get it.

And they can talk about math all day long. And they've lost me.

But a kid that likes to learn through stories, I'm there all day for them.

I'm there all day.

And I was the same way. I'm a visual learner.

I'm a story -- you know, I learn from stories. And if I have a really boring teacher, some of the kids are really going to love that teacher, because he's just all about facts, and just gets it all out and can explain it in facts. That doesn't help me. It doesn't help me.

It doesn't mean I have a psychological.

Well, let me make it clear.

That by itself, does not indicate that I have a deep psychological problem.

Okay?

Other things, might.

But not that. That's just everybody is different!

Especially the difference between boys and girls.

And here's what they said, the conclusion was that ADHD is triggered by cognitively demanding tasks.

No. No, it's not.

No, it's not. I was painting yesterday. And I can't tell you how many times, I just kind of like was holding the brush. And I walked around the house, and I was like, oh, wait a minute. I was painting. I mean, I just get -- you know, lose train of thought. I start thinking about something else. And, oh, wait. I've got to go back into the art room and paint.

You know, I don't know if anybody else is like that. But, you know, it's honestly, it's kind of like going to the fridge all the time.

You know, there's no reason to go to the fridge and just stare at the fridge that you just opened up and stared at, you know.

That's not a deep psychological problem.

It's just the way you're wired.

STU: Is that fat?

GLENN: Yes, the fat is directly wired right to my brain. Right to the brain.

STU: Right to the brain.

GLENN: Right to the brain. So I personally think a lot of things are solved -- and not for everybody.

Not universally. But are solved by understanding that we're all different.

And then, you know, just not being such a namby-pamby, wishy-washy society.

That's trying to understand everything.

Did you ever see the south park episode on ADHD? Listen to this.

VOICE: Hello, I'm Dr. Richard Shea, here to tell you about my exciting new drug-free treatment for children with Attention Deficit Disorder.

VOICE: This treatment is fast and effective. And do not use -- apply treatment to the first child.

VOICE: Sit down and study!

Sit down and study!

Stop crying and do your school work!

If you would like more information on this treatment, please wait for this free brochure, entitled --

GLENN: So part of it is, part of it is --

STU: You should hit kids more is what you're saying.

GLENN: No, what I'm saying is -- and this is a very broad brush. One of the things we have a problem with now, is just saying, knock it off. Study. Knock it off.

Focus. And I know not everybody can.

But if you couple that with actually knowing that kids are different and trying to find the best way for your kids to learn.

Because it's not. That's the problem.

Honestly, with big class sizes. And a lot of public schools. Public schools are made for everybody to be the same.

Okay? Everybody has to be the same. Well, they're not the same. Some kids, some kids learn really well in that atmosphere. Some kids don't.

It's not one-size-fits-all.

And they're not teaching you, you know, it's a lot more exciting when you are learning things. I mean, honestly, how many times have you heard your kids say, your kids aren't teenagers yet. So you'll start to hear this.

STU: One is, yeah.

GLENN: Really? How old?

STU: Zach is 13. About to turn 14, yeah.

GLENN: Wow. He's about to be married and have kids, or at least just have kids.

STU: Please no.

GLENN: So, you know, you'll hear from your kids, why am I -- why do I have to know this?

Why am I memorizing this?

I'll never use this. I'll never use this.

And as a parent, you want to say, you're right.

There's no reason you need to know. Memorize that name and that year.

STU: I tell my kids all the time, AI is coming. You're not going to have to know anything. All you have to do is type it in, and it will do all the work for you. Don't worry about it. Never learn another thing, son.

GLENN: Might not be a good idea. see, I don't tell them it's coming. I tell them, it's already here. Why are you working on that? Why are you questioning?

Have -- just take a picture of it, give it to Grok, and it will finish it!

But there's -- we have to start -- we have to start going back to a lot of the common sense, you know, that we used to have.

And there's a lot of things that were really bad.

I mean, you know, I was afraid of our principal. It was Sister Una. Okay. That just says enough right there. Sister Una. And she had a paddle that she hung up in her office, that she made herself.

And it was a wood paddle, and she had drilled holes in it to pick up speed, so there wasn't real resistance.

STU: Oh, yeah.

GLENN: Oh, my. And, you know, she was proud of it. She was proud of it.

But you know what I was more afraid of? I mean, I would have taken the paddling, give it to me twice as hard, sister, just let's keep this between us. Just don't call my parents. Okay?

We don't have that anymore. We don't have that anymore.

And there's some things that come from discipline.

Some things that come from kids being different.

And some, you know, because they do have an issue.

You know, you can't -- you can't talk a kid out of, you know, dyslexia.

You can't understand your way out of dyslexia.

You can't, you know -- you can't do anything, except understand that that makes your child different. And there are ways for them to learn.

But the worst thing for them to do is to medicate your child, so they don't adapt.

They have to -- you either are wildly successful, or you're going to live under a bridge, if you have ADD.

You decide. You either adapt to it, and use it as a strength, or you just, you don't adapt to it, and you just are crushed by the rest of your life.

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.